1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Alma adds a further insight into faith when he taught in Alma 32:
21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.
Just as in Hebrews, Alma points to things hoped for and then adds that the things which are not seen must be true.
Mormon’s teachings on faith, hope and charity shed additional light on the true nature of faith. Mormon teaches that faith exists if, and only if, a certain type of hope also exists in the individual. His teachings are found in Moroni 7 where Mormon says:
40 And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?
41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.
42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.
Combining these scriptural and prophetic sources into a single definition, I understand faith to be:
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen which are true and that build hope, through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal.
This is my working definition of faith.
To me there are key insights found in this definition. First, faith is not unsubstantiated belief. Faith is evidence or assurance. Clearly, it is evidence or assurance of a specific type, but it is evidence or assurance.
Second, faith is not hope. Faith and a certain kind of hope always accompany each other, as we just saw in Moroni 7. Thus, to have hope implies that you have faith. Faith must always increase hope.
Third, as for the nature of hope, faith increases the hope of eternal life through the atonement and resurrection of Christ. This is slightly different than stopping at “faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” The supreme importance of Jesus Christ is His offering of eternal life to those that will embrace His gospel.
In the next few posts I will explore the difference between faith and belief, consider the implications of faith being a gift of God, and examine stories of faith that illustrate the importance of the definition in practice.
In the next few posts I will explore the difference between faith and belief, consider the implications of faith being a gift of God, and examine stories of faith that illustrate the importance of the definition in practice.
[1] Note that the Greek word translated as “substance” can also be rendered as assurance, basis or foundation. Lectures on Faith uses the word assurance.
Hi there! So funny that I chose to teach the RS lesson today on faith. We talked about how faith is active and not passive and spent some time on Alma 32:27 and talked about how to make our faith grow and how the strength of our faith sometimes changes depending on what we a going through -- sometimes we are stronger than others. I am glad you are doing this blog and will become a follower. I wish I was there to hear your lessons, and now in a way I will be.
ReplyDeleteThe Greek word translated as "faith" in the KJV means fundamentally "trust." I think this is an important dimension in conceptualizing the nature of faith.
ReplyDeletehamblinofjerusalem makes very important point: we too quickly skip over the fact that "faith" most often means "trust," not only in the NT, but also it seems to me in Latter-day scripture.
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